Tuesday, February 2 J 982
page 4
Daily Nebraskan
Fditorial
Campaign rhetoric hardly matters to the hungry
It's about time to brace up for the onslaught of
election campaign rhetoric that is certain to flood the
media from now through the summer and up to election
day in November. Everybody who wants to be anybody,
whether he or she is running for a seat in Congress or the
ASUN presidency, is going to tell why he or she has the
plan that is going to make our lives better.
Sometimes in the midst of this campaign swirl, we lose
track of all of the people who don't give a damn who wins
or loses American elections. The verbal battles we wage
and the column space we burn on this or that education
policy, or this or that signal of solidarity with the people
of Poland, are absolutely meaningless to the millions of
people worldwide whose main occupation is finding a way
Worst winter ever
alters campus look
By Bill Rush
I saw a person's bare nose the other day and almost
had him arrested for indecent exposure. Imagine - a
whole nose was exposed in this weather. He was obviously
a flasher or worse.
The meterologists say that this is the worst winter Ne
braska has had in a hundred years. Why did they have to
remind us how cold it is? I know it's cold. I got the mess
age when icicles formed on my mustache as I made my
way to Avery Hall or as we journalism students call it,
Slavery Hall. I noticed some changes on campus that
hinted at how cold it is.
Joggers are now carrying battery-operated space heat
ers and wearing battery-operated socks. They look like a
modern-day version of the ancient Greek fellow who had
his lantern lit for an honest man. The only difference is
that today's runners are looking for the next flight to
Miami.
A person was pouring hot dorm coffee into his car's gas
tank. The car died anyway. (The coffee killed it ). Another
motorist was uncovering his car's engine. The night before
a night when the temperature was lower than 20 degrees
below zero - he tucked his car in for the night with the
greatest of care. I could empathize with those who
pamper their vehicles in cold weather, because I drive my
1981 Everest & Jennings into my room, park it by the
heater, sing a lullaby to it and carefully put a quilt over it.
Of course, my vehicle is an electric wheelchair. Everybody
has his mechanical master who demands extra tender
loving care during subzero weather.
There are other changes on campus. Nobody can tell
where the walks start and the grassy lawns begin; tow
away zones are hidden from everyone except the campus
police, so that a law-abiding person has to park as though
he is having a picnic in a grassy mine field ; the muggers are
taking honest work; and a person in a wheelchair can earn
a respectable income by attaching a snowplow blade or a
giant pick to his chair.
But, there's a bright side to the insanity caused by this
weather. Valentine's Day is coming, and I'm planning to
brave this cold, as are many, by cuddling up with some
thing nice, warm, and cozy - my electric space heater.
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not to starve.
Maybe people in Nebraska and places like it are too far
removed from that sort of thing; after all, we practically
wallow in food, in an area 2,000 miles from the nearest
language into which the term 'Reaganomics' doesn't trans
late. So we focus our attentions on projects like raising
$100,000 to give to a football coach, never stopping to
wonder how many people that $100,000 could feed. At
least, one would hope that it's just a case of oversight; the
alternative is that these people believe that giving money
to the football coach is really more important than
hunger.
So, in this election year, we should remember that if
there is anything that should be outside the realm of
politics, it is food. There is no economic theory, no
version of morality, no political entity or cause so great
and so right that it overshadows the need to feed people.
The stomach is the perfect Marxist; if it does not have
food, and somebody else does, it feels entitled to some of
that food.
By November, of course, all of this is likely to be for
gotten as the candidates finish their respective blitz
kriegs. By the same token, this space will doubtless be
turned over to protracted discussions about political or
social items that will seem at the time to be of foremost
importance. That is why this is the best time to step back
from the political hassle and try to put things in perspective.
Reagan calm, firm on his policy
After weeks of frantic media rumors that he would
reverse his promise and call for new taxes, Ronald Reagan
turned out not to have changed his mind or his policy one
iota.
In the last month or two, Washington reporters have
given a pretty fair imitation of what, back in the bad old
days of ethnic jokes, we used to call a "Chinese fire drill":
William
Rusher
dashing hither and yon without any plan or reason what
ever. Suzy Smartstuff, from her apparently permanent
roost on the White House lawn, would smirk into the
camera and tell us that she had it on the best of authority
that Reagan had panicked in the face of the latest "pro
jection" of the 1983 deficit and would call for a slow
down on the income tax reductions passed last year.
Sam Knowitall, dean of the press corps, confided to his
readers that the president had changed his mind (again)
and would call instead for S40 billion in excise taxes on
hair oil and bar cheese.
Harold Hotnews, the noted peephole columnist, would
then scoop them both with a knowing wink and a report
that Reagan, thinking better of those excise taxes, had
staggered around indecisively until, disregarding the
unanimous advice of his staff, the bitter protests of
Republican leaders on Capitol Hill and the petition signed
by the entire diplomatic corps, he decided petulantly to
go down with his ship. The general impression was
chaotic.
But when the smoke blew away last Tuesday evening,
there was Reagan, smiling calmly and saying, quite simply
that there would be no new taxes. He took care to point
out the best of all possible reasons for this: Increasing
taxes doesn't reduce budget deficits. The Democrats in
Congress are bellyaching about the "projected" deficit be
cause they would love to maneuver Reagan into calling for
higher taxes in an election year. But if he succumbed to
their pressure and raised taxes, where do you suppose the
increased revenues would go? Right back into corrupt and
swollen welfare handouts, starting with Tip O'Neill's
district - that's where.
But Reagan wasn't content merely to stand firmly by
policies already in place. He dramatically seized the
initiative, as he had done last year, by giving Congress
something new to think about: a "new federalism," under
which states and localities would assume responsibility for
federal programs costing $47 billion a year, including food
stamps and Aid to Families with Dependent Children. In
return, the federal government would assume the full
burden of the soaring cost of Medicaid.
Next morning the Washington press corps was busy
counting all the reasons why Reagan's proposals don't
stand a chance: The changes must be enacted piecemeal,
rather than in a single gaudy package like last year's bud
get and tax cuts; they would involve unpopular increases
in state and local taxes; etc., etc. But that's the very sort
of knowing analysis that these same pundits were peddling
last year at this time, and they wound up with egg all over
their faces.
What doesn't look merely ridiculous, unlike the efforts
to make Reagan seem indecisive or ineffective, is the
truly merciless and brutally partisan jobbing the presi
dent's policies have been getting at the hands of the nat
ional television news programs. Day after day, night after
night, these three mightly megaphones have thundered
forth the charge that Reagan's budget cuts are hacking
deep into the flesh and bone of the deserving poor. To
"prove" this, some carefully collected and mysteriously
articulate "victim" is singled out, and we are fed a
tendentious and thoroughly one-sided account of her life
and hard times. Typically, she has been caught in some
freakish bureaucratic bind whereby (allegedly) she can't,
thanks to Reagan, collect all the federal checks she is
accustomed to. No rejoinder to these heartbreaking
accounts is allowed, apparently on the theory that none is
conceivable.
Thank heaven polls show Americans know that clean
ing up a mess the size of Washington, D.C., takes time.
Thank heaven, too, that the job is under way at last.
(c) 1982 Universal Press Syndicate